Robert Wilson
Once a happy hunting ground for MG, the US has dropped off the radar for the reborn, Chinese-owned marque which also has a sedan in the wings that's aimed at the Mazda 6.
File this one under “no surprise” or perhaps “told you so”: MG has dropped its plans to return to the United States.
But the ghost of British sports cars past is building again in Britain and has plans for new models, backed by its new owner Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.
SAIC's NAC MG branch has scrapped its plans to import MG TF roadsters from Longbridge in England to the US. Under one reported version of the plan they were eventually to be supplemented by Chinese-made MGs assembled from CKD kits in Ardmore, Oklahoma.
NAC MG UK’s Sales and Marketing Director, Gary Hagen told British enthusiast website Austin-Rover Online the Oklahoma deal had fallen through.
“The USA isn’t on the short-term radar as an anticipated market for us but, with the right product, it would be good to return there,” Hagen said.
In MG's new adopted home, China Car Times reports the historic brand has missed its half-yearly sales targets by almost 50 percent. The news service said MG sold 1900 vehicles from January to May, averaging around 400 cars per month, well below the 5000 vehicle target that SAIC reportedly set for the former British marque.
But NAC MG has resumed production at Longbridge, near Birmingham, where the factory gate shut after the company collapsed in 2005. An initial run of 500 MG TF LE500 roadsters is being made, or rather assembled at Longbridge using bodies and engines made in China. The LE500 is on sale for £16,399 (A$35,100) but a regular-production TF 135 is planned to cost £14,999 (A$32,000)
Hagen said NAC MG was planning a four-car range of MG models.
“First to arrive will be a mid-sized saloon sharing its platform with the Roewe 550. The planned introduction for this car is late 2010 and, looking at today’s marketplace, I see the main opposition as being the Mazda 6,” he said.
“After that, there will be a C-segment compact and a B-segment supermini. Clearly, we have the capacity to build these cars in Longbridge and the Chinese are keen for this to happen.”
NAC MG sales director Stephen Cox told BBC TV new models would be on sale in Britain in 18 months.
Austin-Rover Online also reports NAC MG is developing an updated roadster, riding on the the TF’s durable platform but with chassis tweaks, new front and rear ends, a new dashboard and revised seating position.
